It's a question of culture, environment, and mentality.
America wants a culture of guns and they got one.

Here's something I bet you didn't know. Canadians are allowed to buy and own AR-15's. Yup. It's true, you can look it up. Canadians are allowed to walk into a gun store (yes, we have gun stores) and buy an AR-15 if he wants one.
But you don't see Canadians running around killing people with AR-15's. Why? Culture ... environment ... mentality.
While the average American is sitting there thinking, "Oh baby! I gotta go get me an AR-15!" ... the average Canadian is sitting there thinking, "What the fuck would I want with an AR-15? Why the fuck would I want one of those?"

I recently found out that one of the guys who works on my crew owns an AR-15. He's been on my crew for 5 years, and he says the bought it 3 years ago. I spend 40 hours a week with this guy and over the course of 3 years he had never even mentioned that he bought an AR-15.
An American would be on Facebook bragging about it ten minutes after he bought it!
Culture. Environment. Mentality.

It's a given that America needs comprehensive gun reform. But America also needs gun culture reform. But it may be too late for that.

we do have a culture of unreasonable anger and hatred of 'others'. That contributes. We also, as Michael Moore pointed out in the flawed, but still substantial "Bowling for Columbine" have a culture of fear, ginned up for bucks and power by a group of folks who are insulated from daily life.

appalling. sickening. and nothing will happen. nothing will be done. i'm a gun owner and a member of the nra but it's clear to me that something has to be done about these assault rifles. they need to be completely banned. they're not for hunting or home defense. they're for killing. 13 school shootings in 2018 already and it's only the middle of february. it's appalling that this keeps happening and we do nothing about it. we need real politicians who have a backbone to stand up to the gun lobby.

Nothing wrong with the firearms dude yet another tard with mental health issues which is the issue maybe more stringent background checks and if mental health issues pop up then not allowing them until they are fine then voila problem of not a problem solved. And dont forget the slippery slope here start with one thing and it will snowball.
In fact the green over here are all about only the military and police should have them in light of recent terrorist events some police are being issued m4s guess what thats to dangerous for the police to carry and unjustified in their view so long story short dont become a knee jerk society like Aus fix mental health problem solved

sorry Fats, but that is WAY too simple to explain the US. Other nations have mental health issues, some of our shooters do. Most of them are just pissed off at something, and guns are so fucking easy to get, they act on anger without restraint.

Mainly, I see the youthful burst of energy around these sorts of issues, and always think about this, or at least, I do when the jaded me kicks in:

"Strange memories on this nervous night in Las Vegas. Five years later? Six? It seems like a lifetime, or at least a Main Era—the kind of peak that never comes again. San Francisco in the middle sixties was a very special time and place to be a part of. Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run . . . but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. Whatever it meant. . . .

History is hard to know, because of all the hired bullshit, but even without being sure of “history” it seems entirely reasonable to think that every now and then the energy of a whole generation comes to a head in a long fine flash, for reasons that nobody really understands at the time—and which never explain, in retrospect, what actually happened.

My central memory of that time seems to hang on one or five or maybe forty nights—or very early mornings—when I left the Fillmore half-crazy and, instead of going home, aimed the big 650 Lightning across the Bay Bridge at a hundred miles an hour wearing L. L. Bean shorts and a Butte sheepherder's jacket . . . booming through the Treasure Island tunnel at the lights of Oakland and Berkeley and Richmond, not quite sure which turn-off to take when I got to the other end (always stalling at the toll-gate, too twisted to find neutral while I fumbled for change) . . . but being absolutely certain that no matter which way I went I would come to a place where people were just as high and wild as I was: No doubt at all about that. . . .

There was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the Bay, then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda. . . . You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning. . . .
And that, I think, was the handle—that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting—on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. . . .

So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.”

- HST, b.7/18/37, d.2/20/05

Doc Gonzo knew the futility at times of sheer energy without ongoing focus on dull details.

Then, at other times, I have reason to get hopeful. This may be the first time I can remember a wholesale, ugly backlash at the NRA. Now, this puts some elected officials in a bind. They, in some cases, hold office solely due to support from the NRA, but a lot of districts have more pissed off Moms and the like than gun toting voters, and they face electoral suicide marching with the NRA principles. Part of the fervor of the current backlash, which includes the dumping of the NRA by a Credit Card company, all three major car rental companies and the host city for the next national Convention, is driven by the utter tone-deaf response to this shooting, making past stunningly bad responses look good. LaPierre went on national TV today and came off as stone-cold nuts, and his spokeswoman insinuated that 'Liberal Media find joy in massacres" or some such. We'll see where this heads, but I'm betting there may be some movement both before the MidTerms and at the ballot boxes in November.

lapierre is a poor spokesman. he should stick to being ceo and stay away from microphones. are those companies pulling out of the nra for moral reasons or are they making knee jerk business decisions based on the current mood of the people? the nra has problems but someone needs to represent the gun owners just like unions represent the workers. and unions buy politicians all the time.

So now Trump wants to arm the teachers. Because, you know, arming teachers creates brave teachers. Just like the armed and trained security guard who stayed outside the school throughout the entire shooting. Handing someone a gun doesn't make them brave.
Why put the onus on teachers to become soldiers? They shouldn't have to. They're teachers.

The teacher who gave his life in Florida protecting students is a hero by any measure. And if he had had a gun perhaps things may have turned out differently. Although I doubt it.
Handing out guns to teachers is an oversimplification to a much larger problem.

lapierre is a poor spokesman. he should stick to being ceo and stay away from microphones. are those companies pulling out of the nra for moral reasons or are they making knee jerk business decisions based on the current mood of the people? the nra has problems but someone needs to represent the gun owners just like unions represent the workers. and unions buy politicians all the time.

the NRA is not, nor was it ever REALLY INTENDED to be some sort of union of gun nuts, er, owners. It is a TRADE ORGANIZATION, always has been. They have one job, to promote the ongoing sales of firearms. The rest is PR. As to why folks are boycotting, yes, there is ALWAYS a component of public sentiment involved in such decisions. In other words, if you see 2 folks strongly opposed to the NRA to every one in support, it's time to save your financial ass and bail. Actual corporate morality is always hard to judge......